Screen goes blank after installing nvidia driver

[fuzmnky]

I tried seeing if anyone in audio/video could help, but I didn't get much reply so I'm hoping someone here looking at drivers can give me a hand.

In a nutshell? When I try to install nvidia drivers, halfway through my screen goes black.

And here is everything I know or have tried:

I just moved over my old system into my wife's case. Everything worked fine in mine and I moved over:

mobo: Gigabyte GA-7vt600 1394 w/ amd 3000 cpu and 2gb of ram
psu: Enermax ELT500awt (500 watts)
hd: new seagate 160gb ide w/ xp pro freshly installed.
and gpu: bfg 512mb 7600gs (which seems to be the issue)
(if I'm leaving out anything important, let me know)

Again, everything worked peachy in my machine, I essentially just switched cases minus her dvd drives and wireless card. But now, whenever I try to install the nvidia drivers, the screen goes blank.

The first issue was that I get this error: "The NVIDIA Setup program could not locate any drivers that are compatible with your current hardware. Setup will now exit." Which I didn't really mind because I wanted the latest driver anyway. So I went and downloaded 178.13 which just came out yesterday or something and everytime I try to install it, it eventually goes blank (though the rest of the computer still runs).

So then I have to boot into safe mode to uninstall it. Then I tried both 91.47 and 93.71 from suggestions off of some old posts and I get the same error.

I downloaded the latest 4-in-1 mobo chipsets and installed them. As well as the latest directx 9.0c and get the same result.

I've run a driver cleaner program and cleaned out the registry. I even tried disabling the device and uninstalling drivers.

The molex plug for the graphics card is running on it's own cord from the psu and is seated snugly in the agp slot.

At one point I had the Device Manager "see" it (Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS) but the icon has a yellow "!" on it. Pulling that up tells me in the Device status that "Windows cannot start this hardware device because its configuration information (in the registry) is incomplete or damaged. (Code 19) Click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooter for this device." So I looked up "Code 19" on MS (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/125174) but don't know really where to go from here.

Right now I have the driver completely uninstalled and the Device Manager shows a "?" under "Other Devices" with the "Video Controller" underneath that.

So what have I missed? Did I mention that last week when all these parts were in my case, everything worked fine?

I guess I haven't tried another graphics card. I'll dig around and see if I can find another agp one laying around in the morning (though if I have one, it's probably an old ati). Though again, this is the same mobo/vcard/psu combo that has worked in my machine for the last 2 years with no issues.

Any other thoughts? I could use all the help I can get!

Thanks in advance!

-james

 

[BillAllen55]

Here is a website for you to consider downloading a recent driver for your graphics card:
http://www.nodevice.com/driver/GeForce_7600_GS/get37245.html

I have had similar frustrations with graphic card drivers in the past. Make you want to consider using your computer for a row boat anchor:grinthumb Have you tried uninstalling all graphic card drivers removing the physical graphics card - restarting the machine (with no graphics card installed) shutting the machine down - reinstalling the grpahics card and going through the add remove hardware system scan once again?
This in effect gives your machine the message that the hardware is new and needs drivers to be installed. That message will then check your OS to determine the best 'generic' driver needed. Once this has been accomplished one can then go to the Windows Automatic Update screen and scan for specific drivers for your graphics card. All that is needed to be done to accomplish this through Automatic updates is to ask the windows update to scan your OS to see what drivers/updates are necessary. Amazing as it may seem often the Automatic updating does find specific drivers for a graphics card.
Regards.

 

[fuzmnky]

Hey Bill!

I'll give that website a try when I get home!

I have not tried pulling the card and restarting...I was going to pull the card and replace it with an old ati I found in my box of discarded parts tonight, but I'll give that a shot first.

Whenever I uninstalled a driver in safe mode (the only way to boot up afterwards) and rebooted into normal mode, it would see the "new hardware" and even though I would have the disc in the tray and an internet connection, auto update would still not find any compatible drivers. Just strange.

Anyway, I'll try all this tonight and post the results. (hopefully from the computer itself!)

thanks!

 

[BillAllen55]

after considerable research this morning I'm afraid I haven't much more assistance than what I've already provided. One point I'm not clear on with your detailed explanation is that when you moved all components to your wife's computer box, I'm curious to know if the monitor being used with your wifes computer box is the same as what was used prior to the exchange of computer box?
Nvidia recommends a 'plug and play' configuration of the monitor in the display settings.
I have an interesting website I thought I would share with you for whatever it's worth.
Sorry I can't be of more assistance.
https://www.techspot.com/tweaks/geforce/

Regards.

 

[fuzmnky]

well, it's up and running now. First I tried Bill's suggestion of pulling the card and starting up without one and then seating it again and rebooting but had the same result. So then I took her old 128mb ati 9550 video card and installed it instead of my nicer nvidia one. I ended up uninstalling all nvidia drivers and swapping her old one back in. Then I installed ati's latest driver and it worked right away.

Still don't know if it was the card or the drivers so maybe I'll dig up her old board and see if I can get my nicer card running on it to troubleshoot some more. I hope it's not my card, I'm always so careful when removing parts. Maybe now I can convince her I need a nice, new huge static free mat!

@Bill, please don't apologize! I appreciate all the effort to try and help a geekbro out! I too was having troubles tracking down info which is why I turned to asking here since half my answers seemed to come from this site anyway. To clear things up, it was her original screen though they are both ViewSonics, mine's just a newer model. But that's a cool link you found. I'll go home and check it out.

If I figure anything else out, I'll be sure to post here. Though my wife doesn't seem to care what's in her computer as long as it runs her spore game, which her card barely does! Lucked out there I guess...

So for all those interested, sorry I don't have an answer yet.